International Journal of Education, Culture and Society 2021; 6(4): 99-111 http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/ijecs doi: 10.11648/j.ijecs.20210604.12 ISSN: 2575-3460 (Print); ISSN: 2575-3363 (Online) Tracer Study of 2019 Graduates of Holeta Polytechnic College in the Catchment Area Tamiru Fufa * , Markos Zelalem, Gemechu Feyisa, Teferi Daba, Efa Gobena Agro-Processing Department, Holeta Polytechnic College, Holeta, Ethiopia Email address: * Corresponding author To cite this article: Tamiru Fufa, Markos Zelalem, Gemechu Feyisa, Teferi Daba, Efa Gobena. Tracer Study of 2019 Graduates of Holeta Polytechnic College in the Catchment Area. International Journal of Secondary Education. Vol. 6, No. 4, 2021, pp. 99-111. doi: 10.11648/j.ijecs.20210604.12 Received: May 25, 2021; Accepted: July 8, 2021; Published: July 15, 2021 Abstract: A purpose-driven and effective TVET is basic to generate competent and essential high-level skills, values, and knowledge vital for the socio-economic development of a country. The study traced the HPC students who graduated in 2011 in terms of their job placement profile and the usefulness, relevance, and adequacy of the skills and competencies as well as work-related values to their job placement. A survey method using questionnaire was utilized to 229 respondents. Results revealed that most of the respondents didn’t landed on jobs which were related to their training program for about 1-6 months. The total number 2019 graduates employed in these organization were 45 out of which 42 graduates 50% (21) were employed on the related position where as 50% (21) were employed to the position which is irrelevant to their field of study. The remaining 6.7% did not respond. These employed graduates are from 7 different colleges and one TVET center. The occupation they have been specialized in are 9. Out of 51 graduates found in Holeta and Walmara district only 14 unemployed graduates filled the survey questionnaires 14.3% (2) continued their degree program while other are still searching for the job. The study revealed that lack of experience, existing bureaucracy, saturation of the occupation of the graduate’s main obstacles to get jobs. Finally, as one aspect in the sustainability it will be crucial to identify ways to further publish and disseminate the tracer study results, in order to make them a regular, visible steering tool for both TVET institutes at the local level as well as at the national level. Keywords: Tracer Study, Holeta, Graduates 1. Introduction Holeta Polytechnic College is planning to establish a Center of Excellence in Agro-Processing (CEAP) through the East Africa Skills for Transformation and Regional Integration Project (EASTRIP) funded by the World Bank (WB). The overall objective of the proposed CEAP at Holeta Polytechnic College is to deliver quality outcome-based training and to supply competent, motivated and innovative middle and low-level workforce equipped with the necessary technological skills that would ensure the implementation of an agriculture-led industrial economy of Ethiopia. Towards the end of the 20th Century, European Universities embraced the use of tracer studies for a plethora of reasons; especially to accredit their study programs; to explain the link between study programs and the job market; to show uniqueness and positioning of individual universities; and also to enable universities and institutions managing higher education in their respective countries make informed and evidence based decisions about improvements and quality education and services in higher education [2, 4]. East Africa (EA) universities and higher education institutions (HEIs) should not be an exception. In addition, importance of graduate tracer studies is to incorporate effective improvements into institutional programs of HEIs by collecting and analyzing information on graduate’s study experiences, professional and personal careers. Such studies can be used to collect data on the employment situation of the most recent graduates in order to obtain indicators for their professional performance [5]. They can therefore, be used to contribute to causal explanations of the relevance and appropriateness of the study conditions, services and programmes provided by HEIs and the quality of the graduate product [6-8]. Tracer study is an important tool to obtain valuable
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International Journal of Education, Culture and Society 2021; 6(4): 99-111
http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/ijecs
doi: 10.11648/j.ijecs.20210604.12
ISSN: 2575-3460 (Print); ISSN: 2575-3363 (Online)
Tracer Study of 2019 Graduates of Holeta Polytechnic College in the Catchment Area
To cite this article: Tamiru Fufa, Markos Zelalem, Gemechu Feyisa, Teferi Daba, Efa Gobena. Tracer Study of 2019 Graduates of Holeta Polytechnic College in
the Catchment Area. International Journal of Secondary Education. Vol. 6, No. 4, 2021, pp. 99-111. doi: 10.11648/j.ijecs.20210604.12
Received: May 25, 2021; Accepted: July 8, 2021; Published: July 15, 2021
Abstract: A purpose-driven and effective TVET is basic to generate competent and essential high-level skills, values, and
knowledge vital for the socio-economic development of a country. The study traced the HPC students who graduated in 2011
in terms of their job placement profile and the usefulness, relevance, and adequacy of the skills and competencies as well as
work-related values to their job placement. A survey method using questionnaire was utilized to 229 respondents. Results
revealed that most of the respondents didn’t landed on jobs which were related to their training program for about 1-6 months.
The total number 2019 graduates employed in these organization were 45 out of which 42 graduates 50% (21) were employed
on the related position where as 50% (21) were employed to the position which is irrelevant to their field of study. The
remaining 6.7% did not respond. These employed graduates are from 7 different colleges and one TVET center. The
occupation they have been specialized in are 9. Out of 51 graduates found in Holeta and Walmara district only 14 unemployed
graduates filled the survey questionnaires 14.3% (2) continued their degree program while other are still searching for the job.
The study revealed that lack of experience, existing bureaucracy, saturation of the occupation of the graduate’s main obstacles
to get jobs. Finally, as one aspect in the sustainability it will be crucial to identify ways to further publish and disseminate the
tracer study results, in order to make them a regular, visible steering tool for both TVET institutes at the local level as well as
at the national level.
Keywords: Tracer Study, Holeta, Graduates
1. Introduction
Holeta Polytechnic College is planning to establish a
Center of Excellence in Agro-Processing (CEAP) through the
East Africa Skills for Transformation and Regional
Integration Project (EASTRIP) funded by the World Bank
(WB). The overall objective of the proposed CEAP at Holeta
Polytechnic College is to deliver quality outcome-based
training and to supply competent, motivated and innovative
middle and low-level workforce equipped with the necessary
technological skills that would ensure the implementation of
an agriculture-led industrial economy of Ethiopia. Towards
the end of the 20th Century, European Universities embraced
the use of tracer studies for a plethora of reasons; especially
to accredit their study programs; to explain the link between
study programs and the job market; to show uniqueness and
positioning of individual universities; and also to enable
universities and institutions managing higher education in
their respective countries make informed and evidence based
decisions about improvements and quality education and
services in higher education [2, 4]. East Africa (EA)
universities and higher education institutions (HEIs) should
not be an exception. In addition, importance of graduate
tracer studies is to incorporate effective improvements into
institutional programs of HEIs by collecting and analyzing
information on graduate’s study experiences, professional
and personal careers. Such studies can be used to collect data
on the employment situation of the most recent graduates in
order to obtain indicators for their professional performance
[5]. They can therefore, be used to contribute to causal
explanations of the relevance and appropriateness of the
study conditions, services and programmes provided by HEIs
and the quality of the graduate product [6-8].
Tracer study is an important tool to obtain valuable
International Journal of Education, Culture and Society 2021; 6(4): 99-111 100
information regarding the graduates’ livelihood after they
completed their training and join the labor market [3]. This
information will be used for minimizing any possible deficits
in the program and improve it for the future in terms of
content, quality and delivery of the training and creating
employment opportunities. In contrast to such elite systems,
higher education (HE) systems across the world have become
increasingly massified in recent years [14]. Massification
connotes more than a simple, albeit substantial, expansion of
student numbers [15].
Tracer studies are widespread in higher education but also
often employed in the VET (vocational education and
training) / TVET (technical vocational education and training)
(2) sector. In many countries, conducting tracer studies is a
formal requirement for the accreditation of study programs.
Programs/projects seeking reform of TVET, which try to
improve skills match and the transition from school to work,
use data from tracer studies to measure their effectiveness.
Education institutions are also increasingly interested in
feedback from their former students to improve their study
programs, and to show new applicants how their graduates
have managed the transition to employment.
The tracer study manual [10] states that the primary
purpose of a tracer survey is to assess whether TVET
graduates, are able to get gainful employment or not, be it
wage employment or self-employment. In effect while a
tracer survey, as the name implies, is tracing where about of
graduates, it is also an important mechanism to assess how
effective and efficient training centers are in meeting their
objectives; that is, in preparing young people for the next
phase of their lives through providing quality training.
Many countries are experiencing growing demand to
introduce a system of tracer studies due to requirements of
reaccreditations and quality management. Education
institutions are often forced by law to implement regular
tracer studies, and demand from various donor agencies or
stakeholders (such as the World Bank, EU, Asian
Development Bank and the national agencies) to collect
empirical evidence about the relevance of the
education/training is also growing. HEIs today are
increasingly viewed as central to national strategies for
securing shares in the global market and universities as the
repositories of valuable human capital to support the
economic development of the nation. Universities are in that
favored position of keeping and creating science. Graduates
occupy an interesting position in the economy and there are
still competing interpretations about the outcomes of
graduates when they enter the labor market [11-13]. [1]
Study conducted on tracer study which was forced by
Ethiopia government to conduct tracer study and evaluate the
employability of graduates for each program undertaken in
institution. After the tracer study conducted the institution
decided on the continuity of the program going on in the
institution or closing the program. Therefore, HPC tracer
study is intended to generate information on the employment
status and conditions of youth who were trained in HPC. It
also aimed at generating information on the competitiveness
of HPC graduates and employment destinations.
1.1. Research Objectives
1.1.1. General Objective
The primary objective is to measure the relevance of
technical and vocational training programs and the number of
trainees who have been employed or unemployed in their
fields of training, as well as to assess their skill gaps for
further training.
1.1.2. Specific Objectives
To provide the HPC catchment area with practical and
hands-on information on the employment status of TVET
graduates in the labor market.
To assess the skills gap and training needs of the TVET
graduates.
To know the number of trainees finding employment on
the field of occupations they had been trained.
To asses why unemployed trainee graduates could not be
able to find employment in the labor market.
1.2. Limitation of the Study
The accessibility of all graduates in the study catchment
area as well as graduates of the Colleges became difficulty
due to lack of data sources and malfunction of registered
phone number obviously affecting to study the whole
graduates. As illustrated under study area particularly
graduates of HPC came from 7 Zones and 3 Towns which is
very wide area to get in touch all graduates during the study.
2. Methodology
2.1. Study Area
The study area is predetermined by government based on
TVET Cluster Structure. The catchment area covers Holeta
Town and Wolmera District. Such tracer believed to be
conducted by other TVET Institutions according to their
cluster. Thus, the study is restricted to this catchment area.
2.2. Employers of HPC Graduates
The list of all private enterprises was taken from
Investment of Offices of both local administrations’ bodies
(Holeta Town administration and Walmera district
Administration) and enterprises have capacities of employing
were purposely selected to be studied. All Federal and local
organizations found in the catchment areas were studied.
2.3. Baseline Survey of 2019 Graduates
For the base line survey, the whole graduates of 2019 (142
male and 87 female totals of 229) were studied based on the
guidance of tracer study manual.
2.4. Employed Graduates of 2019
Through phone contacts it was tried to call 238 HPTC
graduates using their personal phone or family’s phone. The
101 Tamiru Fufa et al.: Tracer Study of 2019 Graduates of Holeta Polytechnic College in the Catchment Area
survey of all other employed HPC graduates were conducted
in all potential employer organizations. Only 45 were found
in 31 organizations.
2.5. Unemployed Graduates
The study on unemployed graduates was limited to
graduates of HPC which were found in the study catchment
area. Number of HPC Graduates were 51 of which 39 are
living in Holeta Town whereas 12 are living in Walmara
District. Out of these 51 graduates, 16 have been already
employed and, 12 unemployed graduates of HPC were
surveyed, the phone of 13 was not working, 6 graduates did
not respond, the phone of 4 respondents were wrong. In
general, only 12 unemployed graduates able to fill
questionnaires.
3. Presentation and Discussion of Results
This part is concerned with the analysis and interpretation
of data collected through survey questionnaires and
document analysis. This part of presents the findings of 229
base line survey of 2019 graduates, field survey of 31
employer organization who already employed TVET
Graduates, 45 graduate who has got paid employment and 12
unemployed graduates. The analysis dealt with information
gathered through questionnaire filled using telephone call for
12 unemployed graduates and from employer organization
and from employed graduates the questionnaires distributed
directly. The collected data was analyzed using IBM SPSS
Statistics 21 computer software.
3.1. Baseline Survey of 2019 Graduates
3.1.1. Spatial Distribution of Graduates
Graduates of 2019 came from 3 Towns (namely Hoolataa,
Amboo and Sulultaa) and 7 Zones (namely, East Walaga,
Horro Guduru Walaga, Kelem Walaga, North Shawa, South
West Shawa, Special Zone of Oromia Surrounding Finfinne
and West Shawa). The survey data show that 66.4%, 17.5%
and 6.6% graduates came from West Shawa Zone, Holeta
Town and North Shawa respectively. Thus, Holeta town and
the two zones account for more than 90% of HPTC’s 2019
graduates. Sululta Town, Kelem Wallaga and South West
Shawa were each contributed only 0.4% trainees. When the
number of graduates from town were compared to the
number of graduates from rural area districts by far graduates
from rural area is higher than that of from urban areas; i.e.
81.2% from Town vs. 18.8% from Rural districts. From 7
Zonal areas our customers came from 29 districts and 184
villages which shows that the high number of our customer
were from rural areas and Gandaas. Concerning the social
media utilization out of 229 respondents only 3.5% have
Facebook account and 0.4% has email address whereas all
have own cell phone.
3.1.2. Socio Demographic Information
Gender: Out of 229 graduates 62.01% were male whereas
37.99% were female. According to the data obtained the
college registrar the number of female graduates was
proportional to the male during registration (which is almost
about 50%). But the graduation rate of the students indicated
that the graduation rate of females is lower than male. Based
on the finding of this tracer study increasing the enrollment
of the female students in to the college is not enough, due to
after enrolled measures have to be taken to increase the
female graduation. This needs further study in order to know
the reason to come up with the possible solution.
Marital status: The survey result of tracer study showed
that from the total sample considered for this study about
95.30% of the graduates were single, 4.23% were married,
and 0.47% was divorced which implied that large number of
graduates are single.
Table 1. Demographics characteristics of respondents.
Variables Frequency Percent
Gender Male 142 62.01
Female 87 37.99
Marital status
Single 203 95.30
Married 9 4.23
Divorce 1 0.47
Age
≤20 98 43.56.0
21-25 124 55.11
26-30 1 0.44
30-35 2 0.89
≥ 36 2 0.89
Source: Surveyed data 2020
Age: It indicated that participants according to the study
were mostly aging between 21 and 25 which account about
55.11% and around 43.56 was below 20 years old. This
implied that out of the graduates more 50% of respondents
was in the active labor force when they considered for jobs in
different government and non-government organization.
When our graduates were analyzed in terms of age, 98.6%
were aged 25 years old or less which shows that they were
potentially found at productive age.
3.2. Educational Characteristics of Graduates
Based on the occupational standard set the graduates
sampled and the result of the qualification indicator
illustrated in table 3. The result showed about 35.52%,
25.88%, 18.86%, 9.66%, 7.45%, 1.75%, 0.44% and 0.44%,
of HPTC graduates 2019 in NRCUM, AAHS, APMM, HNS,
CPMM, ITSS, GAHC and HCCP are indicated percentages
qualification respectively. As it is known Holeta polytechnic
College giving different training programs the proportion of
the graduates the showed as 97.4% is Level IV, 2.2% is
Level II and 0.4% is level III. This implied that large number
graduates were those completed level IV. When this
proportion compared with the threshold of Moshe it doesn’t
coincide with the ratio set. The other indicator considered as
measures of qualification is the number of the graduates
passed the CoC and the CoC result showed that there are
graduates not yet competent during trail2 which in turns has
also impact on the employability of the graduates.
International Journal of Education, Culture and Society 2021; 6(4): 99-111 102
Source: Surveyed data 2020
Figure 1. Spatial distribution of 2019 graduates.
Table 2. Qualification of the respondents sampled.
Variables Frequency Percent
Qualification
AAHS 59 25.88
APMM 43 18.86
CPMM 17 7.45
GAHC 1 0.44
HNS 22 9.66
HCCP 1 0.44
ITSS 4 1.75
NRCUM 81 35.52
Total 228 100
Level
Level II 5 2.2
Level III 1 0.4
Level IV 223 97.4
Total 229 100
CoC Result
No. of graduates NYC
trail1 and 2 83 36.2
Trail 1 (Jul2019) 106 46.3
Trail 2 (Dec2019) 40 17.5
Total 229 100
Source: Surveyed data 2020
3.2.1. Delivery of Quality Training HPTC
Currently Ethiopia ministry of education planned to taught
the students as per their interest, even though the capacity of
the institution in the country cannot allow to do so. The
survey result showed about 97.66% of respondents of the
graduates were trained according to their preference while
around 2.34% were not trained as per their preferences. The
remaining 6.6% did not responds. Obviously, most trainees
could be motivated at large since their interest was
maintained. But their COC result shows that only 46.6%
were competent in the first trail and 17.5% in the second trail.
The remaining 36.2% were either didn’t evaluated or still not
yet competent. This This is a wastage for the government and
the society hence it needs the attentions of all stakeholders in
general and HPTC in particular in the future.
Table 3. Delivery of quality training for respondents.
Frequency Percent
Yes 209 97.66
No 5 2.34
Total 214 100.0
Source: Surveyed data 2020
3.2.2. The Contents of the Training
In TVET, particularly in outcome-based training, quality
training is the main thematic area (MoE, 2008). According to
2019 tracer study conducted in Holeta Polytechnic College
above 50% of HPTC trainees showed dissatisfaction with the
training delivered in the college due to many quality factors
identified with action research undertaken to survey the
factors affecting quality of training. The base line survey of
2019 graduates were also undertaken on 229 graduates with
13 quality measuring elements. Likert scale range from 1 to 5
was used to rate the value of each measuring element in
which 5 represents strongly agree to high quality while 1
stands for strongly disagree. Averagely, the survey findings
revealed that 65.56% of respondents were strongly agreed,
109 Tamiru Fufa et al.: Tracer Study of 2019 Graduates of Holeta Polytechnic College in the Catchment Area
3.4.3. Job Placement Rate of Holeta Polytechnic College
VGC team of HPT College made phone calls for 238
(Male=155 and Female=83) to know the where about of HPC
graduates of 2019. It was possible to get only 138 graduates on
phone call. The team couldn’t find the 100 graduates because
either the graduates out of telephone network, or switched off
their phone or the phone numbers they gave to VGC was
wrong. The VGC team assured that out of 138 contacted
through call phone only 76 (Male=64 and Female=13)
graduates were employed. These 76 employed have been hired
in private enterprises, government organizations, NGOs or few
started their own business. The remaining 61 graduates are
unemployed. Knowing the employment status of those whose
phone is not functional needs further investigation. The largest
employer of our graduates was private enterprise (49.35%),
followed by government, self-employment, whereas the list
employers were NGOs (Table 20).
As illustrated in Table 21 only 32.35% were employed out
of 238 graduates. Among the employed graduates, 16.81% is
AAHC, followed by APMM with 4.62% and NRCUM &
BEI are 3.36%.
Sources: Survey data, 2020
Figure 4. Graduate’s occupation standard.
But the percentage of graduates when calculated with the
specific number of graduates each occupation, the 1st is BEI
(72.73%). The 2nd
is AAHC (67.80%), 3rd
is CPMM
(21.05%), 4th
is APMM, 5th
is APMM (25%) and ITSS (25%),
the last is HNS (21.74%) and the list is NRCUM (10.26%).
3.5. Unemployed Graduates
3.5.1. Statistics of Unemployed Graduates by Their
Occupation
The Ethiopian Technical and Vocational Education and
Training (TVET) system has been supplying skilled manpower
necessary for the development of the national economy by
making the graduates competent enough either to be self-
employed or waged employed entrepreneur. To the contrary,
there are graduates of HPTC who are not yet employed.
Under this topic TVET graduates who are not yet
employed were also traced. Out of the total TVET graduate
of Holeta Polytechnic College by the year 2019 E.C, 51 of
them are under the Holeta Catchment area; 16 of them has
gotten employment, 12 of them unemployed and the other 23
of them the telephone they gave is not functioning. Data
gathered through telephone interview from 12 unemployed
graduates was analyzed.
3.5.2. Gender and Martial Status of the Unemployed
Graduate
Gender: As indicated in the table 22, the gender proportion
of the unemployed graduate is equal; 50% of unemployed
respondents were male and 50% were female.
Marital Status: 11 (91.67%) are single and 1 (8.33%) are
married.
Age: 7 of them which is 58.33% are between age of 20-23
years; 2 of them (16.67%) are below age of 19; and 3 (25%)
are above 24 29 years old.
Table 22. Gender, Age and Martial Status of Respondents.
Gender Marital Status Age category in years
Male Female Total Married single Total < 19 20-23 >24 Total
No 6 6 12 1 11 12 2 7 3 12
% 50 50 100 8.33 91.67 100 16.67 58.33 25 100
Source: Surveyed data August 2020
Table 23. Unemployed graduates by their field/Occupation.
No %
AAHS-IV 1 8.33
CPMM-IV 3 25
NRCUM-IV 5 41.67
HNS-IV 2 16.67
ITSS-II 1 8.33
Total 12 100
Source: Surveyed data August 2020
As indicated in the table 23 out of 12 unemployed
respondents 5 (41.67%) of them are NRCUM-IV and 3 (25%)
of them are CPMM-IV and 2 (16.67%) of them are HNS-IV
and the rest are AAHS-IV, ITSS-II.
3.5.3. Current Status of Unemployed Graduate
Table 24. Unemployed graduate Activities.
No %
Other Training 2 14.3
Serving the family 1 7.1
Searching for job 6 42.9
Other 3 35.7
Total 12 100.0
Survey Data: August 2020
The statistics in the Table 24 shows that 42.9% of them are
searching jobs; 14.3% of them are started other training, 7.1%
International Journal of Education, Culture and Society 2021; 6(4): 99-111 110
is serving family and 35. 7% of them are doing other things
like (Continued education, working for charity and searching
for vacancy) while are searching for job.
3.5.4. Time Taken to for Searching Job
Regarding the period of time to search for job 11 of them
(78%) are searching for job for one years, 1 graduate (7%)
has been searching for 7 months, 2 (14%) of them do not
responded.
3.5.5. Methods Employed to Search for Job
The statistics in the Table 25 shows that 50% of the
unemployed graduates using mass media; 28.6% of them are
using direct contacts to Governmental and non-governmental
organization and the rest 21.4% are employing TVET to
search job
Table 25. Methods employed to search for job.
Methods to search for jobs No Percent
Public advertisement such as internet, newspaper,
radio, TV, advertisement boards 5 50.0
Direct contact GO & NGOS 4 28.6
With help of TVET College 3 21.4
Total 12 100.0
Surveyed date August 2020
3.5.6. Actions to Get Employment
Box1: Action taken by the unemployed graduates to get
employment
What are actions you are taking to get Employment either
as self-employment tor paid employment?
I am doing my best to searching for vacancy
Organized on Mushroom production and failed to continue
because of lack of collateral to get money.
Started the process to start but the process from the kebele
is taking time
Not doing any thing
3.5.7. Relevance of Field of Study for Application
The statistics in the Figure 5 shows that 50 of the
respondents are applying for vacancy which is relevant to
their field of study and the rest 50% are applying for field
which are irrelevant.
Source: Survey data, 2020
Figure 5. Relatedness of graduates to area of employed.
Reason for applying for irrelevant job vacancy
Graduates are applying to vacancy which is irrelevant to
their field of study because:
No demand for their field
Bureaucracy to be employed
Excess supply in the field
Investors not yet started
What were your major obstacles for your not to be
employed?
Table 26. Obstacle for being unemployed.
Field of Study Obstacles
NRUC-L-IV Bureaucracy
More supply in the field
CPMM-IV
Bureaucracy
More supply in the field
Work experience is asked
Far away/distance
4. Conclusions
This study was under taken to trace back the where about
of the graduates of TVET institutes after one year of their
graduation. This study catchment area is specific to Holeta
Town and Walmara district. The document includes the study
result of four type of populations (graduates, employer,
employed graduates and unemployed graduates). The base
line survey is solely done on HPTC’s graduates which are
total of 229 graduates (182 male and 87 female). The survey
of employed graduates was taken place with labor market
need assessment (LMNA) for 2013 data collection on the
private enterprises, government and non-government
organizations. which were surveyed alongside
The total number 2019 graduates employed in these
organization were 45 out of which 42 graduates 50% (21)
were employed on the related position where as 50% (21)
were employed to the position which is irrelevant to their
field of study which indicated number of graduates employed
in the related to qualification and unrelated to qualification is
proportional. The number of employer organization are 31.
They were also surveyed simultaneously with LMNA and
employed graduates. The study on unemployed graduates
was limited to graduates of HPTC which were found in the
study catchment area. Out of 51 graduates found in Holeta
and Walmara district only 14 unemployed graduates filled
the survey questionnaires 14.3% (2) continued their degree
program while other are still searching for the job. The study
revealed that lack of experience, existing bureaucracy,
saturation of the occupation of the graduates are the main
obstacles to get jobs. The telephone follows up enabled the
researcher to identify the status of 138 graduates out which
77 found to be employed during the survey period. This
figure is 32.35% of the total graduates. 57.65% has not yet
employed and hence they are work seeker backlogs.
5. Recommendations
For the effectiveness of the tracer study the researchers
111 Tamiru Fufa et al.: Tracer Study of 2019 Graduates of Holeta Polytechnic College in the Catchment Area
recommends the following points.
Table 27. Recommendation based on the finding.
No Action to taken Responsible body Implementation mechanism
Building the data base of all graduates to
obtain at single points at all level TVET
structures
FTA Putting the data of all graduates in easily accessible way on website
TVET Bureau The data of all graduates in easily accessible way on website
Town/Aanaa TVET offices In excel or in other suitable data base software
HPC, training centers In excel or in other suitable data base software
Networking all TVET Colleges in order to
share the data of their graduates.
FTA, TVET Bureau, Zonal
TVET offices Creating common data platforms
Sending the graduates to their
Town/Aanaa TVET to create fertile ground
for tracer study at their locality
HPC, training centers Through letter
Creating graduate alumni association HPC, training centers Through trainee’s council and VGC team before the graduates leave
the college
Improving the data collection tool FTA, TVET Bureau Involving TVET in questionnaire development and pilot testing
before utilization
Organizing the TVET in SME before
living the college HPC, training centers Delivering life skill training before graduations, preparing projects
Saving money for self-employment Trainees Starting at their entry of the college until completion of the training.
Delivering work place Town/Aanaa
administration
Through board facilitation the working place should be prepared for
the graduates
Finding employer organization HPC, training centers Identifying and communicating potential employer organizations.
through VGC facilitation
References
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